What Other Newspapers Are Saying

October 17, 1987|By United Press International

The Journal-Bulletin, Providence, R.I.:

For the second time in two weeks, the United States has used military force against Iran to keep the shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf free and open. If the U.S. fleet is correct to stop Iran from laying mines-an indirect attack on all ships-then it is just as correct to defend itself against the sort of direct attack launched by Iran on Oct. 8.

Now, some in Congress want to invoke the War Powers Act, permitting them the option of pulling U.S. forces out prematurely. That`s just what Iran wants Congress to do.

The fleet is being allowed to do what it must to defend itself, and President Reagan remains ready to stay the course. This is a far cry from Vietnam, where U.S. forces had their hands tied and then were withdrawn-mission incomplete.

With Reagan keeping Congress informed, there`s no need to invoke the troublesome War Powers Act.

Atlanta Constitution:

The President and his advisers may gnash their teeth to admit it, but their mission in the gulf surely has crossed the threshold set forth by the War Powers Act (and) has acquired a momentum of its own. The speed with which we have assembled this imposing naval force has taken the Iranians and the Soviets aback, and they don`t like it one bit. Our own resolve has served to encourage the navies of Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands to provide escorts for their own merchant vessels. And Washington is beginning to unlock doors throughout the gulf states to heretofore undreamed-of levels of military cooperation.

The administration`s protectiveness toward its policy-making prerogatives is understandable; so are its special qualms about subjecting its gulf mission to a possible isolationist ambush on Capitol Hill. Just the same, the executive branch should sincerely seek out the lawmakers` best counsel and cooperation. It has a case worth making in the gulf, one that could be improved and refined in that dialogue.

The Milwaukee Journal:

The news media have become political kingmakers, of a sort, and have some reason to feel nervous about the role. They didn`t ask for the job; it fell to them by default. Yet they risk being caught in a backlash, even when they perform in a fully responsible manner. . . .

Nowadays, whether a presidential candidacy gets off the ground depends, in considerable measure, on the candidate`s ability to project the desired traits through the news media. Candidates failing the test will have difficulty attracting campaign contributions and volunteer workers.

Like it or not, the press has no responsible choice but to keep performing the function-for now, at least. If it does not inform people, most voters simply will be left in the dark.

Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock:

Sharon Trakas, a spokesman for a group called Women Against Pornography,

and exploited the trauma Hahn suffered from her tryst with PTL founder Jim Bakker in order to increase sales and ``get back at the right wing.``

We`ll stipulate that Playboy hoped to raise circulation with its coverage and uncoverage of the Hahn-Bakker affair, and we don`t doubt the magazine enjoyed taking a shot at the religious right, which has been angling to put Playboy out of business as part of a larger scheme to squeeze the life from the 1st Amendment. But if being paid $1 million to tell your story and pose semi-nude is being preyed on, there`s a whole bunch of people in this country who would like to be preyed on, and a whole bunch more who`d like the chance to say that the offer was made, but they turned it down. As Hahn could have done, had she chosen.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Don`t look to the President`s commission on AIDS for any enlightenment on how the nation should cope with the AIDS crisis. Mired in bickering, the panel is in complete disarray.

The chairman, W. Eugene Mayberry, chief executive officer of the Mayo Clinic, has resigned, as has the vice chairman, Dr. Woodrow Myers Jr., Indiana`s commissioner of health. Reportedly, the White House failed to support them.

The executive director was fired just as the panel began its work, allegedly for inexperience. . . .

Americans are getting little credible information from their government about this deadly epidemic.

The only winner in this game is the AIDS virus, which continues its deadly work unabated while those who are supposed to provide leadership to defeat it squabble over irrelevancies.

Los Angeles Herald Examiner:

Washington has squandered the remarkable advances made after the first Sputnik jolted the United States out of complacency 30 years ago. The American can-do attitude and engineering ability that took 12 astronauts to the moon has been replaced by a chaotic space policy motivated primarily by wounded pride over Soviet space leadership. In addition to the other problems it has created, this approach is doing considerable damage to commercial interests.

It`s long been apparent that the current administration has no intention of reviving the civilian space program. . . . General Electric and Hughes Communications are pressing the administration to reverse its policy barring U.S. satellites from being launched aboard Soviet rockets.

In a few years, if Washington adopts a more aggressive civilian space plan, satellites (could) again be riding into orbit on U.S.-made launchers. Meanwhile, with the space shuttle booked for years with military missions and only a few private rockets available until the early `90s, using what the Soviets have built would cause neither American business nor American security any harm.